38. Angel Court Where? St James area, linking King Street and Pall Mall. This one runs parallel to Crown Passage, a former star of Londonist's Back Passage. What? Clean, wholesome alley in a clean, wholesome area. Angel Court cuts between toff hangouts and office buildings. A plaque on the western wall commemorates St James's Theatre, which closed in 1957 despite fierce protests from Vivien Leigh and Sir Laurence Olivier. Bas-relief panels at either end of......

Happy February, FOBGs. Another healthy serving of book groceries awaits you this week. Stick to a well-rounded book diet, and you’re sure to stave off a winter cold. We have no actual data to support this contention – we’re book geeks, not science nerds – but it certainly sounds promising. So eat your greens, drink your grains, and check back later this week for a bonus edition of the Book Grocer especially dedicated to......

Book-lovers will be checking out a unique new venue on Saturday [2 Feb]: St James Street Open-Air Library in Walthamstow. No payment, no tickets – just bring as many books as you like, and swap them. Fab, but Brrrrrr. Its hours are brief; from 1-3pm the first Saturday of the month. And its book stock is the few hundred its organisers have rounded up from supporters – plus whatever anyone brings. But it’s handily......

Announcing the fourth Londonist guided walk. When: Friday 8 February. What: Piccadilly warriors, sapphic Royalty, bonkers fashion, nazi dogs, naval heroes and lovesick gardeners are amongst the cast on this dysfunctional relationship stroll through St James. Who: Chris Roberts, your genial guide from our previous walks is back. Chris is a veteran tour guide, author of Cross-River Traffic, resurrector of the Penny Dreadful with his One Eye Grey, and all-round top bloke. Where: Meet......

The Mayoral race has been quiet recently. Londonist suspects that it is the calm before the shitstorm. According to a recent poll, Boris is only one point behind Ken. A sign that campaigning is going to start making a dent on the Winehouse news in the London Lite is that Boris, from the blue corner, has launched a new Back Boris website. The photo gallery shows us that recently the campaign trail has taken......

Fancy getting sporty next summer? Two day athletics beano planned. Thames Gateway staff turnaround. Don't suppose it will be the last. Peckham's Universal Church of the Kingdom of God is praying for a financial revelation. Daffy immigration rules hit football. 2012 budget in the news again: this time it's security issues. Image taken in St James' Park yesterday courtesy of daveograve@ via the Londonist flickr group.......

If you've been wanting to join the cycle revolution but are put off by all that aggressive, unpredictable and dirty traffic out there then maybe this weekend's Hovis London Freewheel, which will trundle through nine miles of traffic-free town on Sunday, will help you get on your bike. The number of cyclists on London's streets has apparently increased a stunningly impressive 83% in the last 12 months. Unfortunately, it's too late to register to......

St James wine merchant Berry Brothers and Rudd could be considered as a family-run community corner shop. But when you consider that the family are eighth generation owners, their local community includes the Queen and Prince Charles, and even the ‘corner’ is formed from Henry VIII’s tennis court, you soon realise that this place is in no danger from supermarket encroachment. It's possibly the poshest corner shop in history. Londonist, lucky us, recently wangled......

Fundraising events, for whatever cause, should always try to be novel and attention grabbing if they're going to reap the quids in. Londonist keeps up with the best of them. Lately, we've had the vet in a dog bowl, the bunny rabbit taxi and bid for a date girl. All excellent ideas to varying degrees. However, we've yet to come across a scheme that beats "Beards for Battersea". Yes, staff and volunteers from Battersea......

Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. Fuzzy’s Grub Fleet Street 62 Fleet Street London EC4Y 1JU Tel & Fax: 020 7583 6060 Monday to Friday 7:30am till 3:30pm Map St James’s 6 Crown Passage London SW1Y 6PP Tel: 020 7925 2791 Fax: 020 7930 7192 Monday to Friday 7:00am till 5:00pm Map Bow Lane 10 Well Court London EC4M 9DN Tel & Fax: 020 7236......

Only a fortnight to go now before central London is engulfed by the two-wheeled juggernaut of the world's most celebrated race. "Le Grand Depart" is the title given to the weekend of sport and festivities from 6th - 8th July that marks the first visit to the UK capital of the Tour de France, a cycling contest in the same way that a royal wedding is a quiet ceremony in a local family church.......

Take a slice of Mayan history, a chunk of Dolce & Gabbana, a liberal dash of De Beers, and a shot of Ali G. Mix in the mind of a British artist, and what do you get? A diamond-encrusted skull expected to be sold soon as the highest priced piece of art by a living artist, that's what! Currently on display at the White Cube gallery in St James's, Damien Hirst's For The Love......

This is the latest version of the Doon Street Tower, a skyscraper proposed by Coin Street Community Builders to sit on the South Bank near the OXO Tower. Designed by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, the scheme had previously proven controversial thanks to its loftiness, which would have made it visible from a number of viewpoints including St James’s Park and the courtyard of Somerset House. Complaints came from the usual suspects including English Heritage, the......

A trackside fire in Bermondsey this morning has led to the closure of London Bridge station with Southeastern, Southern and First Capital Connect services to London Bridge, Cannon Street, Charing Cross and Waterloo East affected. The station will remain closed until at least 7pm this evening although London Bridge tube is still open. Additionally road closures are in place at Blue Anchor Lane, Rockgrove Way, Southwark Park Road, Lucey Way, St James' Road, Jamaica Road.......

Well, the elements gave us a bit of a battering last week, with plenty of damage and several people killed. But lest we get all worked up about global warming and freaky weather, it's worth remembering that the capital is no stranger to the Force 10 fart of Mother Nature. Here's a roundup of, erm, past wind. 1091: Strong winds make their debut on the recorded history of London. On October 23rd that year,......

It's the start of a brand new column, where we'll be taking a look at the changing face of London over the last century or so. Kind of like a time-travelling photoblog. To kick off, here are views of St James, Clerkenwell in 1906 and 2006, a scene which has barely altered. Fewer trees, less cabling and a couple of extra rooms above the building on the left are the only real changes in......

Visitors to St James's Park last week may have happened across this a rather strange wildlife tussle - a pelican picking up and swallowing a pigeon. Cathal McNaughton, a photographer who captured the incident, described the event, The pelican was on the towpath preening itself, and there were a lot of tourists watching it. Then the bird got up and strolled along until it reached one of the pigeons, which it just grabbed in......

There's a few articles around today about Jay Jopling's latest venture: the £12 million White Cube, Mason's Yard in St James's, due to open at the end of this week. According to Adrian Searle in the Guardian the new building which stands on the site of a former electricity sub-station, is more than double the size of the Hoxton White Cube, and "even its broom cupboard is probably bigger than White Cube's first incarnation"......

This day in London’s History 1749: Gurning impresario John Jacob Heidegger dies, aged 90. No, got to admit, we’d never heard of him either. But having read his story, we feel ashamed to have only just made his acquaintance. Heidegger came to London in 1708 from Switzerland as a ‘negotiator’. Through force of character, he worked his way up the social ladder and eventually became a favourite in the court of George II. During......

It's time to dust off that rusty racer - the Tour of Britain comes to London next week as the capital hosts the final stage of the nationwide cycle race. As the Tour of Britain website reports: The 2006 Tour of Britain will consist of six stages starting on Tuesday 29 August in Glasgow. The Tour then takes in new routes in the Northwest, Yorkshire and the West Midlands, before a brand new fifth......

A tribute to the capital’s alleys, ginnels and snickleways. 6. Crown Passage, SW1 Where? There can’t be many shortcuts that lead to a Royal Palace, but, by Jove, here’s one. The aptly named Crown Passage spills out onto Pall Mall, close to the redbrick St James Palace. Its other end reaches King Street. What? Narrow and crowded with ancient buildings and swinging signs - feels very ye olde worlde. A jumble of sandwich shops......

If you're not worn out and over-stretched running around London for this most exciting London Architecture Week and you feel able to fit in a bit of sculpture-snooping too, there is plenty to see in the third annual London Sculpture Week. Though aimed at collectors and buyers, the event is a good chance for anyone interested in sculpture and 3D art to see what is tucked away in the galleries and dealerships in town......

London Architecture Biennale and Architecture Week got off to a fine if sweaty start this weekend. We’d particularly recommend ‘Transit’, an Iain Sinclair-narrated short film by Emily Richardson, in catacombs beneath Smithfield Market - spooky, thought provoking and surprisingly deserted when we visited. Here’s our pick of the many events happening over the next couple of days. And don’t worry about missing the football. They’ve thought of that… Monday Blueprint Big Breakfasts: The chance......

Charles Holden (1875-1960) is a man with two careers. On the one hand, he gave us impressive Portland stone giants like the Senate House and 55 Broadway – two of London’s tallest buildings in their day. But the same chap also masterminded the design of 20 or so tube stations – those elegant brown brick affairs best seen on the northern stretch of the Piccadilly Line. These in particular show off Holden’s principles of......

This day in London’s history 1984: WPC Yvonne Fletcher was shot and killed in St James's Square during a protest outside the Libyan Embassy. She was the first policewoman to be murdered on duty in Britain. The event inspired car insurance salesman Michael Winner to etsablish the Police Memorial Trust and a memorial to WPC Fletcher was commissioned for the square. In 2005, the National Police Memorial was unveiled by the Queen, it stands......

There's the rest of today, all of tomorrow and all of Saturday. That's a little over two days to brace yourself and exercise your mental defences. When the clock strikes midnight and it officially becomes Sunday 26th March... that's it. It's going to be Mother's Day. Aren't mums lovely? That special lady who brought you into the world and looked after you, stayed up all night worrying and watching over you when you were......

It's been a good week for pissing off the neighbours. Firstly it was a couple of ickle pussy cats in Camberwell, now it's the thought of thousands of James Blunt fans roaming endlessly across London's green and pleasant spaces, high on spritzers and Sainsburys' bacon crunchies. Let's face it, London isn't Worthy Farm, probably looked a bit like it once, but isn't likely to do so again (unless TMFB has his way). So if......

English Heritage, the scoundrels, keep trying to block new skyscraper proposals; but they are good for something. With the Institute of Historical Research, EH are embarking on a project to give free public access to the epic Survey of London. The survey was founded in 1894, and has built up, in unrivalled density, a history of London’s streets, buildings, monuments and parks. Eight of the 45 volumes are available right here, right now, and cover......

This day in London’s History Bit of a Royal anniversary, today. The little-celebrated Queen Anne (look, there she is to the right. Isn't she gorgeous?) was born in St James Palace on this day in 1665. The poor lass became pregnant at least 18 times, but never spawned anything that lived beyond childhood. We also celebrate a royal death today. Charles II died of kidney ailments on February 6th 1685, in Whitehall. (It really......

First of all, I'd do something for the body: a gentle mid-morning run around Hyde Park with preferably no interference from the speakers at Speakers' Corner and lots of interaction with adorable over-excited, waggy-tailed dogs. These dogs do not leave poo on the park paths and do not chase to bite; they only chase in a friendly, playful fashion. And I find exactly the right volume level for my mp3 player so that I'm not......